Portable bleacher



H. D. OBEFQDQRFF? PORTABLE BLEACHER Filed June l2, 1922 2 Sheets-Sheet l @miba/woo HENRY D. OBERDOBJFER, 0F CHAMPAGN, ILL ii 1 GIS.

POBTLE BLEACH.

Application led June 12, 1922. Serial No. 567,700.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known th-at l, HENRY D. BER- Donrnn, a. citizen of the United States, residing at Champaign, in the county of Champaign and. State of Illinois, have 1nvented certain new and useful lllmprovements in Portable Bleachers; and I do declare the folloiir'ing to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to improvements in portable seating stands, such as those commonly known in the United States as bleachers, used for seating spectators at base ball games, numerous other sports, circuses, etc.

The principal object of the invention is to provide bleachers which ma be readily carried from place to place an quickly set up for use, but knocked down when no longer needed.

In carrying out the above end, a plurality of sills are provided for the inclined seatl supporting stringers and the latter are supported by detachable legs, further aims of the invention being to povide a novel quickdetachable connection tween each stringer and its respective sill; to provide for brac ing the supporting legs of the Stringer and preventing rearward movement of the latter which would cause disengagement of its connecting means with the sill; and to provide a novel form of support for the seat boards.

With the foregoing in view, the invention resides in the novel subject matter hereinafter described and claimed the descriptive matter being supplemented by the accompanying drawings.

Figure 1 is a perapective view obleachers constructed in accordance with my invention.

Figure 2 is a vertical transverse sectional.

View.

Figure 3 is a perspective view of one of the V-shaped noses which are employed in connecting the strings with the sills.

Figure 4 1S a perspective view of one of the seat-board supports.

ln the drawings above briefly described, the numeral 1 designates a plurality ot substantially parallel sleepers or sills which extend from front to back of the bleachers and will of course converge to some extent' if the latter are to be made of arcuate form, such as is required for circus tents. The

front end of each sill is provided with a keeper here shown in the form of a U- shaped metal strap 2 bolted or otherwise secured to the upper surface of said sleeper,

the U-sha-ped front end of said strap being inclined forwardly as shown, so that it may readily receive a nose 3 on the front end of the lsuperposed inclined Stringer 4, each strin er being supported by suitable incli'ner legs 5 detachable associated therewith in any llpreferred manner. lln :forming the nose 3, preferably take a metal strap and bend it into `ll-shape as shown in the drawings, one arm of the V being extended as shown in 6 and secured to the lower edge of the Stringer 4 while the other arm of the V extends upwardly and is secured to the front end of said Stringer. It will be observed that by this construction, each nose 3 is provided with a forwardly declined upper surface which will tightly wedge into the keeper 2, but may be readily removed from this keeper when the bleachers are to be disassembled.

The several sills 1 are connected with each other by cross strips 8 which rest thereon and are held detachably by forwardly facing hooks 9 carried by the upper sides of said sills. These hooks are so positioned as to cause the strips 8 to contact with the rear sides of the legs, thus holding these legs and the stringers a against rearward movement, so that possible disengagement of the noses 3 from the keepers 90 2, is effectively prevented.

For supporting the seat boards 10 upon the Stringer 4 l preferably employ the irons shown, one of these irons being illustratedindetail in Figure a. A metal-bar 11 95 being then bent downwardly to provide a W0 supporting leg la also secured to the upper edge of the Stringer. ln securing this leg, its lower end is preferably bent forwardly to form a foot 15 which is secured by a bolt or screw to the Stringer, the opposite end of the seat-supporting bar being similarly secured in place. Between and in front of each seat board 10, l provide a loot-board 16 and l provide the several stringers 4 with suitable stir-rups 17 for 110 supporting said foot-boards.

By employing the construction shown and described, or an equivalent arrangement, bleachers are provided which will be extremely rigid when set up for use, yet may be quickly and easily knocked down to be carried to another point. When this point is reached it is a slmple matter to'rapidly assemble the stand with ease. Excellent results may be obtained from the details disclosed, and they may well be followed, but it is to be understood that within the Scope of the invention as claimed, numerous minor changes may be made.

I claim:

1. The combination with a portable Stand including a horizontal sill and an inclined seat-supporting Stringer resting thereon at its lower front end; of a U-shaped strap secured to said Sill and having its intermediate portion bent upwardly therefrom extending in advance of and Surrounding the front end of said Stringer, and an anchoring bracket secured to said end and removably seated in the bight portion of the strap.

2. As an article of manufacture, an anchoring bracket for a seat-supporting Stringer comprising a metal strap bentbetween its ends to one arm of which' is adapted to incline downwardly from the lower front end of the Stringer, the other arm being intended to lie in a Substantially horizontal plane so aS to permit it to rest on a sill beneath the Stringer, the end of the Strap extending from said last named arm being bent upwardly to permit attachment to the underside of the Stringer, and that end of the strip extending from the rst named arm being bent at ri ht angles thereto to permit connection to te lower front end of the Stringer.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

HENRY D. OBERDORFER.

form aYV-shaped portion, i 

